TRANSCRIPT

A PINEWOOD DIALOGUE WITH

Robert Altman’s films play with the viewer’s conceptions of American film and of America itself. Altman has created a unique cinematic style, with a trademark mixture of documentary camerawork, semi-improvised performances, overlapping dialogue, and multiple narratives. His films reinvent Hollywood genres while revealing the layers of spectacle that make up American culture and society. A month after winning an honorary Academy Award, Altman opened a 22-film retrospective of his career by speaking at the Museum following a screening of Kansas City , a panoramic and jazz-like melodrama about politics, race, crime, and the movies, which is set in Altman’s hometown.

A Pinewood Dialogue following a screening of SCHWARTZ : Yeah. I think it holds up quite well. It’s a Kansas City , moderated by Chief Curator David beautifully crafted movie, for one thing. (Applause) Schwartz (April 29, 2006): ALTMAN : Well, yeah, it’s beautifully shot. SCHWARTZ : And here is Robert Altman. (Applause) SCHWARTZ : Not just in terms of the musicians, but ALTMAN : Thank you, thank you. I hadn’t seen that the craftsmanship, the photography. One thing I movie [ Kansas City ] in a long time. love about the movie is the editing. This was one of the movies edited by Geraldine Peroni, who did a SCHWARTZ : Well, some of the people who loved brilliant job, who passed away a few years ago, but this movie when it came out said that it’s going to she was a great editor. hold the test of time. It’s one of those movies that people will look back at ten years from now. And ALTMAN : She died during the—she was editing now it’s ten years later. ’s film . And her assistant, who had worked—did the music editing ALTMAN : Well, the music in it is just————in itself, is and stuff————on this film, went ahead and finished classic. Those players are... You’ll never see them that picture. . And he now works together again. To me, I wanted the jazz to be as mostly for Paul Thomas Anderson. He works on all much as the film. of his films. And Dona Granata [in the audience], this was the first time I had Dona as a costume SCHWARTZ : You’ve described this as a movie that’s designer. And it was a beautiful job. And all those made in the style of jazz, in a way; that—not just cars. Where’d I get all those cars? (Laughter) that there’s music in the film, but that it has sort of a... The movie is————like this conversation, the movie SCHWARTZ : I’m sure this was not a huge-budget is in the style of jazz. (Laughs) Not just that it has film; [yet] there’s a lot of attention paid to the detail, music in it, but that you... the production design, the look of the film.

ALTMAN : No, the structure of—or the way we did ALTMAN : Yeah. No, it was—I can’t remember what the scenes... It just kind of bled off, one thing onto it cost, but not a lot. another. The scenes were highly improvised. Harry [Belafonte]’s scenes, that long—those monologues SCHWARTZ : And how did the impulse to make a he has with Dermot Mulroney. Those were————you film [called] Kansas City come about? You know, they were jazz riffs. And each character in obviously were raised in Kansas City, started your this play had a musical connection. I don’t know film career... how this film holds up.

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ALTMAN : Well, Frank Barhydt, who co-wrote this ALTMAN : I made industrial and documentary films, with me and has worked for me————he’s from Kansas and anything I could lie myself through. City. And we were doing————I think it was Tanner ’88 ; we were doing the editing. And we were just sitting SCHWARTZ : So that was your film school, in a way. there in that editing room, and Frank and I just started talking a lot. And we kind of dug into our ALTMAN : That was my—yeah, there were no film Kansas City lore. His father was a friend, a schools then; it was... But I worked for this place contemporary of mine. And we just started noodling called the Calvin Company. And we made films for on it, and came up with this kind of story. And these How to Run a Filling Station and—instructional films. are all pieces of stories that I had heard growing And I did a lot of sports-rules films for high schools, up. My father was not far separated from the culture and... Anything. Action. of those people, so I had heard all those stories. And you know, during the Depression, which is SCHWARTZ : And was it true that before you left when this time was, they didn’t close a bar in Hollywood to go back to Kansas City, you started a Kansas City. They just didn’t pay any attention to it. business where you came up with a way to tattoo And you’d see all these things about bootlegging identification labels on dogs? and all that. It was just wide open. And with connections to the White House, right on down ALTMAN : Yes, I did. I tattooed... (Laughter) That through. And the musicians gathered there, and was my real job. I tattooed dogs. I went to kind of—it became a music town, because all these Washington, when Harry Truman was president, bands were forming and going west, and doing and I tattooed his dog. (Laughter) I was the those high-school graduations and proms. They’d tattooer. My other two partners just took the money get out on the road and they’d get stuck. The band and, ultimately, ran. would break up or they’d get broke, and they ended up kind of hanging out in Kansas City. And SCHWARTZ : Now, you said something when you the night of this film, in the Hey Hey Club, was a got your honorary Academy Award this year. You Monday night. And on Monday nights, the bars— said that you view your films as sandcastles. You the clubs were dark. But all the musicians came out used this metaphor. And that’s, of course, the and just came in, went from club to club and kind name of your production company [Sandcastle 5 of jammed. It was quite a time. Productions]. But the films really don’t go away. The films stay around. SCHWARTZ : What was your experience of this music where you were growing up? I read one story ALTMAN : Well, they stay in my memory, like the... that you were introduced to jazz by a black woman But when I say that, I mean that one film—it’s all who worked in your house. one film. Just different chapters, they seem like now. ALTMAN : Yeah. And it was “Solitude,” was the thing. I’ll never forget it; she said—I remember we SCHWARTZ : And how does this film—how much of were in the living room, and she said, “Bobby, now it is sort of about your memories of how Kansas sit down and listen to this.” (Laughter) And I said, City actually was, versus a sort of fanciful...? “What?” And she said, “Just sit down.” I remember I sat on, like, a footstool, in front of a radio, and she ALTMAN : I mean, it’s a romanticized version of, said, “This is the best music there ever was.” And it probably, what really happened. But it wasn’t far was “Solitude.” And it just stayed in my mind. I off. All those things happened; those places were mean, it’s in this film twice. We did two nods to it. there. That place where the sister shot the gun at her, and where Steve Buscemi was gathering those SCHWARTZ : And tell us a bit about Kansas City, guys together to go out on that voting thing, that... your work in Kansas City. Early in your film career, When we were there, it was there, of course. And you actually went out to Hollywood, tried to make it my dad used to own a garage just around the out there, and came back to Kansas City and spent corner from that—that club was going then. And it a lot of time making industrials back there. was one of those clubs where the waitresses didn’t wear any clothes.

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And they had a unique way of picking tips up off the actors you get, these are the people that really the table. Fifty-cent pieces. People would go in do this work. And they have a different style. And I there and have a drink, and they’d tip big tips. want to incorporate that. I want to take the (Laughter) I didn’t put that in the movie. (Laughter) positives, or the—what I want to see from them. And sometimes it’s silence. SCHWARTZ : I think it’s the last film of yours where you actually have a screenwriting credit, one of the SCHWARTZ : I know this is something that you must main writing credits. You’ve been involved, of be asked a lot, because acting is so important in course, in writing, at different levels, in all your films. your films, but how do you create the atmosphere But can you talk a bit about what the writing on the set where this can happen? process is like? How do you leave it open to then go after this freedom? ALTMAN : Oh... I have no way of answering. I don’t know. I don’t know. We just get up in the morning, ALTMAN : Each project has different DNA. During and people show up, and you say, “Well, we’re the eighties, I took several theater pieces, going to do this.” And you’re paying attention to the Streamers and Come Back to the Five and Dime, set and the props, and setting the camera, and Jimmy Dean [, Jimmy Dean ], things like that, and then pretty soon the actors are there, and it’s all took them right off the stage. Didn’t have a happening. screenplay at all; we just took the Samuel French book and put a fourth wall in, and shot it exactly like SCHWARTZ : Harry Belafonte, who had done some I would set up the theater piece. wonderful movies in the late fifties, and then up through Uptown Saturday Night , into the And this credit business on... You look at the end of seventies————this was, in a way, a comeback for him, this picture. If you enjoy the music, it’s okay. But my as a film actor. Could you talk a bit about working God! You know, most of those people, you couldn’t with him? find out who they are . I don’t know half of them. And the list gets longer every film. I think it says, “Legal ALTMAN : Well, Harry’s the best. He’s a very, very services by so-and-so, so-and-so,” you know. And close friend of mine, and I love him dearly. And he so we’re doomed (Laughter) to that sort of thing. and I worked for, oh, a long time. He made an appearance—he was in The Player . He made an Well, I don’t think you want to just see a bunch of appearance in The Player , as himself. And then... names. And even if it’s your mother or daughter or And he and I worked on an Amos ’n’ Andy project son or what, you’re the only one that’s going to for about three or four years. And I can’t remember know it. “Oh, look, there’s Charlie’s name!” whether that was before, during... I think it was before we did Kansas City . SCHWARTZ : (Laughs) Okay, well, maybe we won’t show the credits during the rest of the SCHWARTZ : Before this was made, right. retrospective, (Laughter) for all the films. ALTMAN: Yeah. And he’s a great artist, and he’s a ALTMAN : Well, I try to use that space up, because I great person. have to do it; so there’s usually some good music going on... SCHWARTZ : What happened with the Amos ’n’ Andy project? That was a fascinating idea. SCHWARTZ : The way that you approach dialogue———— there’s something wonderful about it, which is that ALTMAN : We just—it was too big. It was too big for you don’t feel like you always have to have people us. It was too big a project. My ambitions, I think, talking. You observe characters. Miranda were too high on it. It became extraordinarily Richardson, in her whole last scene, doesn’t say expensive. And nobody wanted to pay for it anything. We just get to watch her think. because they said, “In the long run, who really cares?” ALTMAN : That’s what it is. And you know, different situations call for different things. And also, then,

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SCHWARTZ : What was it that made you want to do the train stations like that were designed after some it? What was it about... place in Germany.

ALTMAN : What, Amos ’n’ Andy ? SCHWARTZ : (Repeats audience question) Okay, so just the way—about [how] the political process SCHWARTZ : Yes. often becomes a part of the film, the campaign and the election bringing people out. ALTMAN : Well, I think the story of it is just—is fabulous. The beginning of vaudeville, and the ALTMAN : In some of those films, it’s kind of what music, and this whole history of these people it’s about. Certainly, Nashville was. But those things coming from the slaves and—where they weren’t are, I think, they’re very—they impress me. I think even allowed musical instruments. And they made they’re very important. I like to have a sense of up their own musical instruments. And it just when a story’s going on or things are going on in indicated to me that, you know, people are going to the small thing, that they’re set into a larger whistle in their life, no matter how tough it is. And it dynamic, with these elections and things. Anyway, I became a real history. It was a big, big part of pay attention to it. this—Kansas City and American music. All these bands. Most of them were black guys. And they SCHWARTZ : (Repeats audience question) How do created a music that didn’t exist anywhere else. you cast your films? How do you select actors? And still doesn’t. ALTMAN : I kind of just kind of go to whoever I’m... If SCHWARTZ : What I’d love to know about you and I meet a guy in a bar, and I’m getting ready to shoot Harry Belafonte is what your discussions are like a film, and I say, “Oh, listen, you want to be in my about politics, because you’ve both been so film?” (Laughter) I mean, they remind you of outspoken in the past few years. themselves, and... You know, we go after—we have certain people; you say, “Oh, I want so-and-so in ALTMAN : Well, we tend to agree on a lot of things. this film.” And you can’t get them, for various reasons, and it just grows like Topsy, in a way. I SCHWARTZ : (Repeats audience question) Okay. So don’t know, really, how it happens. The phone Union Station was rebuilt for the film? starts ringing.

ALTMAN : It [Union Station] was totally trashed. And SCHWARTZ : (Repeats audience question) If you I grew up, as a kid; some of my—when I was three could talk about your decision process: How do years old, we would always have to go to the you decide which films to make? station to meet my Uncle Howard, when he was coming in for Christmas or these different times, ALTMAN : I decide which films to make by the ones I and we’d go down... I remember I lost a balloon, get the money to make. (Laughter) And that’s the one of those... And it went all the way to the ceiling. truth. I just had—in my own memory—that was a big, big place in my life. And when we got there, we went to SCHWARTZ : Have you written many films that have the city, and it was nothing. And we redid—they let not gotten made? us redo half of it. And then as they saw what was happening, they kind of supported us in other ALTMAN : Well, I’ve been involved in lots of films that things. And I think that’s still open. didn’t get made. But I’ve never done a script and then gone out and tried to sell it or make it. I’ve SCHWARTZ : I think that there’s a museum there, always done the film. It’s a process—and I finally actually. stopped putting my name on the credits, because there’s so many names on the credits, and there’s ALTMAN : Yeah, I think there’s a museum there now. so many people that do all this stuff. And it doesn’t But it kept that building from going down. That was mean anything. To give the credit in all the films I’ve one of the original train stations. They were all—all made—say, “Who is the writer that was the most responsible for them?”—that would be the actors.

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Because they’re the ones that are improvising, and SCHWARTZ : Okay. But they’re quite—I mean, they they’re showing me what these characters are. And really changed how films were made. They were I’m just saying, “Ooh, that’s great. Let’s do this, very... let’s do that.” ALTMAN : And none of them really broke through. SCHWARTZ : Well, I think everybody here knows None of them was... Nashville , oddly enough, which you’re being a little modest right now, about that, most people know a lot about, was probably one of about your role. the lowest-grossing films I’ve ever made. And McCabe & Mrs. Miller was the lowest-grossing film. ALTMAN : Well, yes and no. (Laughter) (Laughter) I mean, McCabe & Mrs. Miller just died when it came out. And then something happened in SCHWARTZ : Just following up on that question Europe or someplace, and it started popping up on about getting projects made, how much did The these “Best Twenty,” “Best Fifty Films” lists and Player change things? You talked about that as things like that. But I don’t think that many people your third comeback film, that you had been doing bought tickets to see it. a lot of cable projects. And it seems like after The Player , things must’ve changed for you. SCHWARTZ : (Repeats audience question) Can you name some of the actors who were most surprising ALTMAN : Well, you know, it got more attention and to you, in what they brought to the film or the got awards and all that, and you get... But that’s performance? always what happens. The most popular... The film of mine that’s made the most money and the ALTMAN : Well, Elliott Gould was great. What he most—is M*A*S*H . And I’ll never over-shoot that, I brought to The Long Goodbye was just staggering. don’t think. I don’t know. It’s just, you know, you And I just followed him around. And I just finished kind of just go through your life, and an occurrence working on this A Prairie Home Companion , this film happens. After M*A*S*H , I could’ve done almost that opens in June. And you’re going to show it anything I wanted. here.

SCHWARTZ : Yeah. SCHWARTZ : That’s right, we’re showing it on June 8. ALTMAN : And a guy came to me with the Brewster McCloud idea, and I said, “Oh, let’s do that.” And it ALTMAN : And I’d never worked with Meryl Streep was—people—my agents and everybody said, before. And we shot the first day, a long, long “Oh, you don’t want to do that. Let’s go and get scene with Meryl and Lily [Tomlin] and Lindsay Fredric March and do something really big.” Lohan and... And I went home that night, and I was (Laughter) But that’s what I wanted to do. And then depressed . I mean, she is so good . I went home, I McCabe & Mrs. Miller was the same way. We just told Kathryn [Reed, his wife], I said, “You know, I went up to Canada and made this cheap little didn’t have to be there.” (Laughter) It wouldn’t have Western. made a whit’s difference whether I was there or not. And she’s not pushy, she’s not... She’s just the SCHWARTZ : You didn’t feel like something special nicest person to everybody . But she just is 25, 30 was going on? I mean, you were actually, I think, percent above everybody. I mean, she just knows . around 44 when you made M*A*S*H … It’s just something in her. And so you don’t interfere with that. ALTMAN : Yeah. SCHWARTZ : Tell us about—I think Jennifer Jason SCHWARTZ : Because you had a lot of experience in Leigh is a great actress. What was she like to work series television. And then one after the other, with on this film? California Split , The Long Goodbye ... I mean, you’re talking about these… ALTMAN : Well, she’s great. Jennifer...

ALTMAN : Well, those all came rather—fairly easily.

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SCHWARTZ : And you worked with her father [Vic another film before that, Gingerbread Man . But [in] Morrow]. You directed her father in Combat! Cookie’s Fortune , I had a scene with Lyle Lovett and Liv Tyler and Chris O’Donnell in a certain ALTMAN : Well, yeah, in Combat! And her mother location. And we shot that scene. Then there was [Barbara Turner] has done screenplays for me. another scene with them, the same people. And we Actually worked as an actress for me once. But went out to the same location to set it up. And I was Jennifer—we got a lot of a criticism after this film shooting that scene, and I said, “I’ve already shot came out about her acting, that she over-acted in this scene.” And I realized that I had staged it and this, she was too hammy But I didn’t think so, and was doing it in exactly the same way I had done the that’s exactly what I wanted. I thought her scene before. And I thought, Well, I’m doomed. performance was delicious. (Laughter) That’s it. And it’s evident. And I’m a little—I have a feeling I was—that many brain cells SCHWARTZ : I know her working process is are dying while I sit here. And many of them went… incredibly intense, and she’s somebody who does They go away. Believe me. (Laughs) incredible preparation. But can you say anything about that? AUDIENCE MEMBER : What do you give the actors, actually, to begin with? ALTMAN : Well, these actors, when they do all that preparation, they don’t tell me about it. (Laughter) SCHWARTZ : Do you believe in a lot of rehearsal You know, they do it. And they’re very secretive time? Or do you believe in being more about their process. They don’t... You know, I don’t spontaneous? talk to an actor very much, once we cast them. And we have a little blah-blah-blah about the picture. ALTMAN : No, no, no, no, I don’t use—I’m too And then I usually bore them with, “Oh, I’m going to impatient for that. I don’t know. I don’t know. We shoot it with this kind of a lens and that kind of talked about what kind of picture we want to make, camera.” (Laughter) And you know, then we just what we’re looking for. And I’m mainly trying to kick go. And once you start shooting, you don’t have them to tell me. I’m trying to get them to tell me time for those conversations. You’re just dealing what they’re going to deliver. Because they’re the with the moment. And I think if we shoot a scene in ones that are doing it, you know. any of these films on a—we shot it on a Tuesday; had we shot it on a Thursday, the whole film SCHWARTZ : (Repeats audience question) Yes, could’ve been different. about your interest in directing opera; what it’s like… Many of my friends will sit down and do lots of readings, and they’ll do rehearsals—they love to ALTMAN : Well. I really don’t even know how it rehearse, and... And the actors always love to started, but the dean of music at the University of rehearse. I don’t like rehearsing too much, because Michigan called me, woke me up, and said, would I I—in most cases—because I think it gets tired. I like be interested in directing an opera, The Rake’s to have it really fresh, to my mind, so I can get Progress ? And I said... And I was familiar with The excited about it. I think. Rake’s Progress . And I said, “Well, I don’t do that.” I mean, “No, that’s a mistake. I don’t—I wouldn’t AUDIENCE MEMBER : I just wanted to ask you about know how to do that. I’ve got a tin ear, and music is some of the recurring themes that you use from film something I can just enjoy, I can’t contribute to.” to film. Like the American flag, et cetera, et cetera. And he said, “Thank you, blah-blah-blah,” and I hung up. And I turned over to go back to sleep, and ALTMAN : Well, I don’t really know. These things I got (clicks tongue). I said, “Well, if I could put come up, and I don’t really—am not really aware eighty people on a stage, and all these things...” that I’m being that blatant. But usually, I’m running And I called him back, and I said, “I can do that, if I out of ideas. (Laughter) And so I’m reaching into can have eighty people on the stage all the time. If something that: well, it worked before, and... we can do...” He said, “Well, let’s do it.” (Laughter) I did a film called Cookie’s Fortune , right after this [ Kansas City ]. (Applause) No, no, I did

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AUDIENCE MEMBER : How do you feel about other (Laughter) MacBlah-blah (Laughter) did this film. filmmakers referencing or paying homage to your And I came in. And then for doing that for work? Hitchcock, they then gave me the [Alfred ] Hitchcock Presents , which was the first kind of ALTMAN : Well, that’s the nicest thing in the world, professional thing I did. And I did one of those, and you know. It’s like going to a dance—you’ve got then I did—and they gave me another one. I did this neat dress that you’re wearing, and you see another one, with Joseph Cotten. And they worked four other people wearing the same dress. out pretty good. Then they gave me another script, (Laughter) It pisses you off in one way. But in the and I was becoming the fair-haired boy there. And other way, you’re kind of flattered. (Laughter) there was a woman that really ran that whole television thing for him, named Joan Harrison. And SCHWARTZ : Just following on this question about Miss Harrison gave me this script, and I read it, and other directors copying you or paying homage to I said, “Well, Joan, you don’t want to do this. I can’t you, I think one thing that you were doing very early do this.” (I should’ve done anything!) I said, “I can’t on was this idea of multiple storylines, moving do this. This is not a good script. It’s not going to around freely. And that happens a lot now. Film is work. The stories are ma-ma-ma.” And I just turned getting more and more nonlinear. But you were it down. And she said, “Oh, all right.” Well, I found doing that, really, first. out later that it was her script. (Laughter) So that was the end of my Hitchcock days. But because of ALTMAN : Well, yeah, I was. I mean, I did that—I did. the Hitchcock mystique and name and all that, and And I think the reason I did that is because if what I had done two of those, I then got a job doing I’m doing gets sort of boring, I can always cut away Whirlybirds , which was a helicopter and two fools to those two guys and then come back. It can help running around and... I did a hundred of those; I you in truncating the process. It’s kind of chicken. It just did... covers my back. (Answers audience question) I am a big fan of that, SCHWARTZ : How did you make the breakthrough to of [Ingmar] Bergman. I am a big fan of Bergman’s. full feature films? One of my favorite films is Persona . And also, David Lean. I am very impressed with Brief Encounter . ALTMAN : The first film I made, I was in Kansas City And then Federico Fellini and those... And I started doing industrial films, and there was a guy there really paying more attention to those than I did who was—his father owned a chain of theaters, the... I took a lot. I get a lot of credit. People say, movie theaters. And he was kind of a bon vivant “Oh, you started all—you do all that overlapping character. And he said, “Let’s make a film.” And I dialogue. You started that.” I say, “I didn’t start that. said, “Okay.” And I wrote this film, The Delinquents , Howard Hawks started that.” And I used to just love in a weekend, and cast it, and we started shooting his pictures. Not for the content or anything else, it. We made it for $65,000. And it was really terrible. but just for the fact that they went so fast. I stole But Hitchcock saw it, for some—one of those weird that. things, and asked to meet with me. And I met with him, and he was doing his half-hour series, and SCHWARTZ : (Repeats audience question) Okay, they were just starting an hour series, called would you say you have a bleak or dark...? Suspicion , I think it was called. They were shooting it in New York. And he said, “We have never—we ALTMAN : Well, you have to tell me that; I can’t. don’t go out and shoot on locations. We build (Laughter) I don’t think—I think there’re two sides to sets.” He says, “And I need somebody that knows every coin. And I think there is a dark side. The how to do that.” So he actually hired me—although Prairie Home Companion , which we’re just starting I wouldn’t take the job, but I did the job, but I to release now... And everybody—the critics, wouldn’t allow [myself] to be—I wouldn’t take the everybody who’s seen it likes it a lot. We’re getting money for it, because I didn’t want to be really, really good responses to it. They say, “Oh, categorized as a production manager. But I set up this is terrific!” And we’ve had very, very few a film in New York, one of those Suspicion s. And a negative things. But nothing came out and said, Scottish director named Robert... Blah-blah-blah… “Oh, this is the greatest thing since…hash.”

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(Laughter) The critics, they’re saying, “Oh, we love They had Tora! Tora! Tora! and Patton , which were this, we love this.” I didn’t, myself, think the picture big films, and then they had this M*A*S*H . And the had any particular thrust—or some words like studio people saw it and they said, “All the that—except I thought Lily was very good, and my operating scenes have to go. We’re not going to God, Meryl and, you know. And they’ve all been have any of that stuff in it. And this film is—get it positive stuff. But there’s been a little caveat, shorter. It’s going right to the drive-ins.” And it was because they don’t really know... I think that the doomed. It was finished. And these two girls that seriousness that one finds in Brokeback Mountain Zanuck had with him just loved the picture. And or films… doesn’t seem to exist here, because it they said, “Oh, you don’t want to change anything seems too easy, too facile. And they don’t quite in that,” and blah-blah-blah. And then we went to know how to praise it. But they don’t un-praise it. San Francisco and had a sneak preview up there, So I’m kind of anxious to see what happens when when Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was this gets out here this summer. playing, in a big house, three thousand people. And they just went nuts over that movie. And [Richard] SCHWARTZ : I think you like to mix things up. I think Zanuck, the younger, happened to be there M*A*S*H was a war film, came out during Vietnam, because there was a Stanford football game. So he but it’s a comedy. This movie, Kansas City , that we went up to see the game, and he wrote the plane just saw, has melodrama and music. So I think a lot off for going to the preview. (Laughter) (And it’s of times, they’re hard to pigeonhole. because I said something like that that I didn’t work for Fox again for—until he was gone.) But... ALTMAN : Well, and they should be. But they’re kind of funny about what they say about... And yet, when Oh…actors. When I say lying, I’m... They will tend you really look at the Prairie Home Companion , it is to—they’ll protect themselves. They’ll say, “Oh, all about death. Everybody dies. Or is... (Laughter) yeah, that’s a good idea.” And they’ll try anything. And everybody’s... But they sing. (Laughter) And They’ve got a really tough spot out there, because they’re happy. they don’t have any control, really, over their work when it’s finished. And if they do have enough SCHWARTZ : But to say that people die is sort of power to have—if they’re Tom Cruise people, they telling it like it is. It doesn’t mean you have a bleak... do have enough power that they can control what it is, and so they make what it is, and it’s all shit. ALTMAN : I know, but nobody noticed it, is what I’m (Laughter, applause) So I feel I have to stay away saying. It didn’t... (Laughter) These people said, from those very powerful actors, because they’re “Well, there’s a very dark place in there, when this not going to want to do [it]. They got too many guy’s...” L.Q. Jones dies. And ultimately, all of them people whispering in their ears. do. SCHWARTZ : We have a show, Jazz ’34 , coming up, SCHWARTZ : But still come see the movie, please. so just as a last question, if you could just tell us a (Laughter) bit about that project.

ALTMAN : Well, actors are—why I say they lie: they ALTMAN : Oh, boy. (Laughter) Well, all the music have to protect themselves so much, because they that was in Kansas City , we shot all of those songs go in and no matter if they come in for one day and and things full-blast. And Jazz ’34 is simply a do one job, they have no control over that film. If musical about the music. It’s just all the music, you they’re Meryl Streep, they have no control over that know. film, other than just an economic control, really. And so they’re really at the mercy of me, and the SCHWARTZ : Well, thank you. I’m sorry we’re going editing, and... I suppose I should—when I first to have to stop, but we will see you again on June 8 finished M*A*S*H , Dick Zanuck—Darryl Zanuck— with A Prairie Home Companion . (Applause) Thank came back with a couple of French cuties from the you. Riviera, where he was kind of spending out his days. And he came back, and they looked at my ALTMAN : Thank you. film. They had two other war [movies] going on.

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TRANSCRIPT

The Pinewood Dialogues, an ongoing series of discussions with key creative figures in film, television, and digital media, are made possible with a generous grant from the Pannonia Foundation.

Museum of the Moving Image is grateful for the generous support of numerous corporations, foundations, and individuals. The Museum receives vital funding from the City of New York through the Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Additional government support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Natural Heritage Trust (administered by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation). The Museum occupies a building owned by the City of New York, and wishes to acknowledge the leadership and assistance of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Queens Borough President Helen M. Marshall, and City Council Member Eric N. Gioia.

Copyright © 2006, Museum of the Moving Image.

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